Fibrous materials made of polyphenylene sulfide (hereinafter referred to as simply “PPS”) are conventionally used in clothing and bedding which demand warmth retaining property. These materials consists of 100% PPS, or the materials are composites comprising PPS fibers and one or more other generally used fibers such as wool fibers, polyacrylonitrile fibers, cotton fibers, polyethylene terephthalate fibers, polypropylene fibers, nylon fibers and polyurethane fibers. Further, since PPS is a resin which is excellent in heat resistance and dimensional stability, it is now considered to widely use PPS as molded articles used in consumer electrical appliances (e.g., protection films in the chambers, door knobs and finger grips in microwave ovens).
However, PPS has a drawback intrinsic to this material in that its light-resistance is poor, that is, its color changes under irradiation by light such as ultraviolet light. Therefore, there is a concern that in PPS members such as fibers, fibrous materials, films and molded articles made of 100% PPS or made of PPS and other generally used resins, the PPS changes its color to brown upon being irradiated with sunlight for a ling time, so that the outer appearance of the members are degraded, and in turn, the reliability by consumers is decreased.
It is known that, in general, to improve light-resistance of a resin member, a light stabilizer is contained in the resin or the surface of the resin is coated with a light stabilizer. However, as for PPS, no successful case employing such a light stabilizer is known.
Further, PPS also has a problem in that it cannot be dyed with a dye such as a cationic dye or acid dye because polyphenylene sulfide per se has a molecular structure having no sites for binding a dye. Further, even in cases where a disperse dye is used, it is difficult to carry out the dyeing by using either a normal pressure dyeing machine or high pressure dyeing machine. This problem of polyphenylene sulfide, that is, the problem of being difficult to be dyed is lethal to commercial products for which improvements in outer appearances are important.